CRN, published by The Channel Company, has named TCS Digital Software & Solutions Group General Manager and Group Head Seeta Hariharan to its prestigious CRN 2018 Women of the Channel list. Read the full article here.

February 2018

#DigitalEmpowers: Women in technology careers don’t need permission to change the world

For women in technology careers, self-confidence is the equivalent of rocket fuel. It can propel us to extraordinary heights so we can change the world. When it’s lacking, our great ideas remain stuck on the launch pad. Read the full article here.

January 2018

MarTechExec: 50 Women You Need to Know in Martech – 2018

Seeta Hariharan has been selected as One of 50 Women You Need to Know in Martech in 2018 by MarTechExec. In this Q&A ahe describes the biggest challenges facing marketers in the next five years. Read the full article here.

TechTarget IoT Agenda: Why citizens should be the digital heartbeat of every smart city

Urban leaders should put citizens at the heart of smart city strategies to meet the higher expectations and logical outcomes they increasingly expect. Read the full article here.

December 2017

Smart Cities World: A light bulb moment for European cities

Thanks to recent advances in energy-efficient LED lighting and smart software, streetlights can now serve as the foundation for building a smart city. By investing in the next generation of lighting, smart cities can deliver something more valuable than savings — the wellbeing of citizens. Read the full article here.

For today’s connected consumer, the most recent great experience with a retailer or brand automatically raises the bar for all other competitors going forward. It’s become a virtuous cycle that’s made them feel empowered, always expecting more. For retailers and brands, this has made connected customer experiences the new competitive battlefield. Read the full article here.

The necessary modernisation of public networks and services to meet today’s transportation needs can be, in part, solved through the implementation of smart technology. Belfort, a modest industrial city in France, is a prime example of smart technology being implemented to improve urban transportation networks. With a population totalling 50,000, Belfort has introduced a solution to optimise its bus transportation system as part of its smart city strategy. Read the full article here.

The humble lamppost rarely receives much attention. But with billions in energy savings up for grabs, cities across Europe are starting to see how switching to smart lighting is a bright idea. Street lights can now be transformed into intelligent machines that adapt to movement, weather conditions and even shine brighter during periods of heightened criminal activity.

While the initial cost of installing smart street lighting technology can be significant, so too are the long-term savings that can be achieved through reduced energy expenditure. Read the full article here.

RealWire – Machine Learning Smart City Software from TCS Slashes Payback Period for LED Streetlights

“The global switch to smart street lighting is an open invitation for every city to begin their smart city journey. Like the dawn of the Internet, we’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible when cities intelligently connect scores of new urban data sources. Just as we’re seeing in retail, banking and other customer-centric markets, cities will compete on their ability to deliver a superior experience for digitally savvy citizens and visitors.” – Seeta Hariharan, General Manager and Group Head, TCS Digital Software & Solutions Group. Read the full article here.

April 2017

#DigitalEmpowers – How to build a smart city transport system in four weeks

By connecting everyday objects to the internet, we will enable everything from self- driving cars to bins that signal when they need emptying. It’s a vision that is both futuristic and, frankly, expensive. While individual sensors and internet connections may be relatively cheap, fitting out entire cities with such technology? Not cheap at all. Which is why it’s so remarkable that a mid-sized European city has been able to turn its entire bus network into a ‘smart’ system in just four weeks and without deploying a single new sensor. Read the full article here.

March 2017

Information Age: ‘Smart’ doesn’t just belong to cars and phones: now even buses are redefining smart-thinking cities
Smart technology has entered the consumer market with a bang – from mobile devices and wearables to home appliances and cars – and is impacting the way people live. Read the full article here.

July 2016

Knowledge and Wharton – Smart Cities: The Economic and Social Value of Building Intelligent Urban Spaces, an ebook by Knowledge and Wharton with foreword by Seeta Hariharan

An ebook by Knowledge and Wharton with foreword by Seeta Hariharan

The ebook Smart Cities: The Economic and Social Value of Building Intelligent Urban Spaces details how governments should design, finance, build, and operate an intelligent city for sustainability, innovation, and efficiency that can lead to a happier and more productive citizenry.

Using data-driven approaches, smart-city governments collaborate internally as well as with its citizens—proactively and transparently—toward the goal of making life better for all. Download ebook.

October 2015

The Art of Engagement – Becoming a digitally savvy retailer in an IoT world.

The age of the Internet of Things (IoT) presents great opportunities and challenges for enterprises across industries. Companies are embedding digital sensors in their products, installing cameras and beacons in their stores and tracking customer digital behaviors through mobile devices. For retailers, IoT offers game changing insights into consumer preferences, such as their propensity for selection and price, and how they want to engage in a retail experience. Read the full article here.

TCS introduced Intelligent Urban Exchange (IUX) a powerful analytics-based software solution for intelligent city operations to help address growing expectations of digitally connected, urban citizens. “We are pleased to already be engaging with key partners in intelligent city projects to bring TCS IUX into the market, improve operational efficiency and generate new revenue streams for cities that will directly benefit citizens; quality of life, Our strategic partners are already finding value with the solution to leverage data within and across domain specific applications and develop local apps that will accelerate smart city programs, provide a flexible platform to fuel future growth, and create a more enjoyable experience for urban dwellers”, said Seeta Hariharan, General Manager and Group Head of TCS DS&S Group. Read the full article here.

Changing Course: Does Your Business Need a New Direction?

“No one wants to admit that their organization can’t keep pace with market trends. However, [there are] early warning signs that serve as harbingers of change, [such as your] business growth lagging more than … your competitors’.” – Seeta Hariharan, general manager and group head of Tata Consultancy Services’ Digital Software & Solutions Group. Read the full article here.

Retail Magazine – Owning The New Customer Journey In The Digital Era

Being a retailer in today’s digital marketplace has become an extreme sport. The ability to know what a customer wants, when they want it, and how they want to receive it – before they even express their needs – is a critical marker of success, but it is not enough to compete in the future of retail. Read the full article here.

August 2015

Good Call – Exclusive: How to Land a Job in STEM, from Women Who Have Done It

I believe it is essential for women, especially those just starting out, to have relationships with mentors – and not just one, several. This is something I’m extremely passionate about, but finding and nurturing such relationships can be a daunting task. Read the full article here.

One thing that’s on the top of every retailer’s mind these days is how to deliver differentiated experiences that create brand value and build sustainable competitive advantage in a world where customers move seamlessly between their digital and physical worlds. Read the full article here.

September 2014

RCR Wireless – TCS focuses on the ‘digital transformation’

Tata Consultancy Services is ramping up its offerings in big data and analytics, looking to increase its competitiveness in IT consulting and services as communications service providers try to get a handle on the opportunities and challenges that cloud, mobile and social technologies are bringing.

“CSPs find themselves at a crossroads,” said Seeta Hariharan, general manager and group head of TCS’ recently formed Digital Software and Solutions group. “The ones that we see as the winners are those that make data a substantial part of their strategy.” Read the full article here.

July 2014

Enterpriser’s Project – The digital imperative for CIOs is clear but daunting

Transformation is a top agenda item for many enterprises. The definitions of transformation span multiple categories, but with the pace of change and ever-increasing adoption of evolving technologies it’s difficult to know which approach will turn transformation into business success.

Seeta Hariharan, General Manager and Group Head for Tata Consultancy Services Digital Software & Solutions Group, believes the answer lies in understanding the technologies driving transformation and leveraging them by optimizing the customer experience as the end game. Read the full article here.

“One of the key conversation starters for me when I go to customers is to help them understand where they are today in the digital transformation maturity and what can they transform themselves into? What sort of benefits they can reap out on it as they embark on the transformation journey, whether it’s cost-savings or upticks. The ability for us to help the clients in understanding what are some of the near-term actions they should take and what would drive the maximum bang for the buck for them. For my group just to cater for that, we are developing return on investment tools for each of the industries we’re focusing on.” Read the full interview.

March 2014

Forbes – Mentors Help Create A Sustainable Pipeline For Women In STEM

Women make up about half of the workforce in America, but they only represent 24% of the workforce in STEM fields. Why should we care? First and foremost, this statistic calls attention to an untapped potential; talent that we need in science, technology, engineering and mathematics in order to remain competitive from a global perspective. But for women, this is important on another level because careers in STEM industries offer better compensation and more career advancement opportunities. In fact, women who hold STEM positions earn 92 cents to the dollar versus 77 cents for women who are not in these fields.

Yet, creating a pathway for women to be successful in these industries is a complex problem; one that must be addressed on several different levels in order to be effective. Young girls are not encouraged to study these subjects in school and even if they receive STEM degrees, many are not pursuing careers in these fields or staying in STEM professions. There are also cultural stereotypes that young girls face growing up that discourages STEM career choices, and these biases often start at home at an early age. Hence, the Million Women Mentor program was created with the goal of creating a sustainable pipeline of women by mobilizing and engaging one million men and women to serve as STEM mentors by 2018.

Tata Consultancy Services recently published a white paper on this subject. TCS is a technology provider to Million Women Mentors and a founding partner. I spoke with Balaji Ganapathy, Head of Workforce Effectiveness, North America, and Seeta Hariharan, General Manager & Group Head of Digital Software & Solutions to better understand the issue and this new mentor initiative for women in STEM.

Businesses that understand customer needs provide a memorable experience and cultivate loyalty. These successful companies have shifted from gut-based to fact-based decision making by capitalizing on customer insights, and are leaps and bounds ahead of the competition.

Seeta Hariharan has been hiring — 235 people in the last seven months, with plans for more than 100 more in the months ahead. She has brought on software veterans from Microsoft, Red Hat, and Informatica, with skills from software engineering to channel sales to software contract negotiations.

Hariharan’s job: Build a software business from scratch inside Tata Consultancy Services, a company best known for doing IT outsourcing in India and other lower-cost countries. She insists the software push isn’t just a means to get a foot in the door for TCS’s huge outsourcing and consulting business, India’s largest IT service provider with about $11.6 billion in annual revenue and almost 300,000 employees worldwide.

“My mission in life is only to make revenue for TCS through licensed sales of software and solutions,” said Hariharan, a former IBMer who’s now general manager of the new TCS Digital Software & Solutions unit. The focus of TCS’s fledgling software unit is digital business. Read the full article here.